Lot 61
Native American, Northwestern United States, Alaska, Inuit, Yupik, Inupiat (Inupiaq), ca. late 19th to early 20th century CE. This is an incredible hand-carved walrus ivory pipe with an intricate hunting and fishing scene across the stem. The piece has a slender mouthpiece with a pierced hole drilled through the center to the bowl receptacle, situated at the opposite end, with a slightly flared discoidal rim. The top of the stem contains to large flat-bottomed boats with hunters and paddlers seated on bench seats, their arms reaching over the sides holding paddles. At the front is a polar bear with a seal in its jaws. On the sides is a large whale, a sled with a person being drawn by two caribou, and the other side has walrus and a sled team with dogs. The pipe is stunning and shows great planning and skill of the artisan to whittle all from a single piece of tusk! Size: 12.125" L x 1.5" W x 2.25" H (30.8 cm x 3.8 cm x 5.7 cm)
These large and ornate tobacco pipes featured everyday life, hunting, and folklore etched or carved in relief and these elongated shapes were inspired by the opium pipes that they encountered through Asian traders. Tobacco was often acquired from Siberia by way of Russian traders and smoking became an important social part of Inuit life, and by the time that American trade was firmly established in the late 1800s, fine tobacco was worth more than guns or ammunition.
This is an ESA antique exempt piece of ivory and cannot be sold internationally or to anyone residing in the states of California, Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, and Washington. We guarantee that the piece is over 100 years old.
Provenance: private Covington, Louisiana, USA collection
All items legal to buy/sell under U.S. Statute covering cultural patrimony Code 2600, CHAPTER 14, and are guaranteed to be as described or your money back.
A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids.
PLEASE NOTE: Due to recent increases of shipments being seized by Australian & German customs (even for items with pre-UNESCO provenance),
we will no longer ship most antiquities and ancient Chinese art to Australia & Germany. For categories of items that are acceptable to ship to Australia or Germany, please contact us directly or work with your local customs brokerage firm.
Display stands not described as included/custom in the item description are for photography purposes only and will not be included with the item upon shipping.
#169887
- Condition: Repaired, with visible break line encircling stem just above the boat where the mouthpiece was reattached. Chips and losses to high pointed areas including losses to paddler heads, sled dogs and sledder head, and losses to caribou sled team. Stable fissures on the boats and pinhole perforation through dog sled. Rare type and highly detailed. Light yellow patina and darker deposits on inside of boats and stem.
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